Hijacking 360 data

Using 360 degree feedback can move your people forward but hijacking 360 data and using for other purposes may just lose any trust you have built with your staff.

In our recent post we talked about there being four deadly mistakes, the first of which we explored in that blog. We see this as the issue of describing such an important process as simply filling in 360 degree feedback questionnaires.”

The second mistake we see is the hijacking of the data for other purposes.

We hear about 'big data' all the time and the fact that 360 degree feedback generates data is often attractive and tempting for secondary stakeholders, for example, those in reward or selection. There is a concern that the scores can be misinterpreted; a rating score of 4 on a scale of 6 may reflect that the person display a specific behaviour 'most of the time' but those not aware of the scale may start to talk about the person scoring '4 out of 6'.

HR teams must avoid the temptation to allow 360 degree feedback results to be used by others for analysis andinterpretation.

This is not only unethical and inappropriate, it’s also an abuse of trust. If you ask individuals to provide structured, observational feedback for development purposes and they then find out that their responses have been used for other agendas, such as to support reward or selection decisions, you’ll have lost their trust.

You can read the full article as part of our collection of opinion pieces.